Ulf-G. Gerdtham

Income-related inequalities in health: some international comparisons

This paper presents evidence on income-related inequalities in self-assessed health in nine industrialized countries. Health interview survey data were used to construct concentration curves of self-assessed health, measured as a latent variable. Inequalities in health favoured the higher income groups and were statistically significant in all countries. Inequalities were particularly high in the United States and the United Kingdom. Amongst other European countries, Sweden, Finland and the former East Germany had the lowest inequality. Across countries, a strong association was found between inequalities in health and inequalities in income.

Equity in the delivery of health care in Europe and the US

This paper presents a comparison of horizontal equity in health care utilization in 10 European countries and the US. It does not only extend previous work by using more recent data from a larger set of countries, but also uses new methods and presents disaggregated results by various types of care. In all countries, the lower-income groups are more intensive users of the health care system. But after indirect standardization for need differences, there is little or no evidence of significant inequity in the delivery of health care overall, though in half of the countries, significant pro-rich inequity emerges for physician contacts. This seems to be due mainly to a higher use of medical specialist services by higher-income groups and a higher use of GP care among lower-income groups. These findings appear to be fairly general and emerge in countries with very diverse characteristics regarding access and provider incentives.

Social capital and health: does egalitarianism matter? A literature review

The aim of the paper is to critically review the notion of social capital and review empirical literature on the association between social capital and health across countries. The methodology used for the review includes a systematic search on electronic databases for peer-reviewed published literature. We categorize studies according to level of analysis (single and multilevel) and examine whether studies reveal a significant health impact of individual and area level social capital. We compare the study conclusions according to the countrys degrees of economic egalitarianism. Regardless of study design, our findings indicate that a positive association (fixed effect) exists between social capital and better health irrespective of countries degree of egalitarianism. However, we find that the between-area variance (random effect) in health tends to be lower in more egalitarian countries than in less egalitarian countries. Our tentative conclusion is that an association between social capital and health at the individual level is robust with respect to the degree of egalitarianism within a country. Area level or contextual social capital may be less salient in egalitarian countries in explaining health differences across places.

Equity in the finance of health care: some further international comparisons

This paper presents further international comparisons of progressivity of health care financing systems. The paper builds on the work of Wagstaff et al. [Wagstaff, A., van Doorslaer E., et al., 1992. Equity in the finance of health care: some international comparisons, Journal of Health Economics 11, pp. 361-387] but extends it in a number of directions: we modify the methodology used there and achieve a higher degree of cross-country comparability in variable definitions; we update and extend the cross-section of countries; and we present evidence on trends in financing mixes and progressivity.

An econometric analysis of health care expenditure: A cross-section study of the OECD countries☆

This paper is an empirical examination of the determinants of aggregate health care expenditure. The paper presents a systematic analysis of relationships across 19 OECD countries, showing the effects of aggregate income, institutional and socio-demographic factors on health care expenditure. The results indicate that institutional factors of the health systems, in addition to per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), contribute significantly to the explanation of the health care expenditure variation between countries; for example the way physicians in outpatient care are paid, and the mixture of public/private funding and inpatient/outpatient care.

International comparisons of health expenditure: Theory, data and econometric analysis

Comparisons of aggregate health expenditure across different countries have become popular over the last three decades as they permit a systematic investigation of the impact of different institutional regimes and other explanatory variables. Over the years, several regression analyses based on cross-section and panel data have been used to explain the international differences in health expenditure. A common result of these studies is that aggregate income appears to be the most important factor explaining health expenditure variation between countries and that the size of the estimated income elasticity is high and even higher than unity which in that case indicates that health care is a luxury good. Additional results indicates, for example, that the use of primary care gatekeepers lowers health expenditure and also that the way of remunerating physicians in the ambulatory care sector appears to influence health expenditure; capitation systems tend to lead to lower expenditure than fee-for-service systems. Finally, we also list some issues for the future. We demand more efforts on theory of the macroeconomic analysis of health expenditure, which is underdeveloped at least relative to the macroeconometrics of health expenditure. We also demand more replications based on updated data and methods that seeks to unify the many differing results of previous Studies.

On stationarity and cointegration of international health expenditure and GDP

This paper examines stationarity and cointegration of health expenditure and GDP, for a sample of 21 OECD countries using data for the period 1960-1997, by applying a test battery that allows robust inference to be made on the stationarity and cointegration issue. Trend stationarity and no-cointegration are tested using new country-by-country and panel tests, not previously applied in this setting. New results for country-by-country and panel tests of non-stationarity and cointegration are presented. Our unit root and trend stationarity results indicate that both health expenditure and GDP are non-stationary. The no-cointegration and cointegration results indicate that health expenditure and GDP are cointegrated.

A note on the effect of unemployment on mortality.

In this note we test if unemployment has an effect on mortality using a large individual level data set of nearly 30,000 individuals in Sweden aged 20-64 years followed-up for 10-17 years. We follow individuals over time that are initially in the same health state, but differ with respect to whether they are employed or unemployed (controlling also for a number of individual characteristics that may affect the depreciation of health over time). Unemployment significantly increases the risk of being dead at the end of follow-up by nearly 50% (from 5.36 to 7.83%). In an analysis of cause-specific mortality, we find that unemployment significantly increases the risk of suicides and the risk of dying from other diseases (all diseases except cancer and cardiovascular), but has no significant effect on cancer mortality, cardiovascular mortality or deaths due to other external causes (motor vehicle accidents, accidents and homicides).

Equity in Health Care Utilization: Further Tests Based on Hurdle Models and Swedish Micro Data

This paper tests the null hypothesis of no horizontal inequity in delivery of health care by use of count data hurdle models and Swedish micro data. It differs from most earlier work in three principal ways: First, the tests are carried out separately for physician and hospital care; second, the tests are carried out separately for the probability of seeking care and the amount of care received (given any use); and third, the tests are based on a model that includes several socioeconomic variables, e.g. income, education and size of community of residence. The paper rejects the hypothesis of no inequity because socioeconomic factors also have significant effects on utilization, e.g. income and size of community of residence. Size of community of residence has a positive significant effect on the frequency of physician visits but not on the probability of visiting a physician.

The redistributive effect of Health Care Finance in twelve OECD countries

The OECD countries finance their health care through a mixture of taxes, social insurance contributions, private insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments. The various payment sources have very different implications for both vertical and horizontal equity and on redistributive effect which is a function of both. This paper presents results on the income redistribution consequences of the health care financing mixes adopted in twelve OECD countries by decomposing the overall income redistributive effect into a progressivity, horizontal inequity and reranking component. The general finding of this study is that the vertical effect is much more important than horizontal inequity and reranking in determining the overall redistributive effect but that their relative importance varies by source of payment. Public finance sources tend to have small positive redistributive effects and less differential treatment while private financing sources generally have (larger) negative redistributive effects which are to a substantial degree caused by differential treatment.